Expert: Jack Toomey - 5/5/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I'm writing a novel and have a 10-year-old child protagonist who has run away from his new foster home.  He lives in a rural/county area, and the police department (or sheriff's) would be small. There is a rather dense forest he could get lost in.

There is no suspicion of an abduction.  What would be a reasonable response?  Would a sheriff or a deputy help look for the boy?  Or would it be up to other adults?

Thanks!

ANSWER: Lynn,

A patrol deputy would be dispatched to the scene.  Is this at night or during the day and are there any hazards in the woods like cliffs, lakes, rivers, etc?  Is the boy handicapped at all? It would make a difference on how the department would handle it.

What part of the country does this happen?

Let me know and we will go from there.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The boy left during the night and has remained missing throughout the day.  There is a river.  The boy is not handicapped in any way.  This happens in the Midwest -- Wisconsin to be exact.  

Thanks.

Answer
A patrol deputy would be dispatched to the scene.  Now its impossible to know how many deputies that this department has on duty during day work but since there is a river and he is not familiar with the area I would think that at least a few more deputies would be dispatched to the scene.  Probably even some state police officers.  It wouldn't make much sense for three deputies and a state trooper or two to start searching a vast woods by themselves so it would probably be a matter of finding rural roads that border the woods and drive these roads or even park on them in hopes that the boy would pop out of the woods.  In addition someone must have a helicopter although it might come from quite a distance.  Maybe from Milwaukee or whatever other cities that have in Wisconsin that might own a helicopter.  The state police most likely do have helicopters.

It would probably take until the next day but a search party of citizens would be enlisted and fan out through the woods under the supervision of the police.  Also tracking dogs would be used.

Let me know if there is anything else that I can help with.